Short communicationRecent growth of children in the two Koreas: A meta-analysis
Introduction
Height differences between the two Koreas were mentioned during one of the U.S. presidential debates by John McCain who stated that “the average South Korean is three inches taller than the average North Korean.” Since a McCain spokesman has not replied to a request to specify the source of the claim, this statement has become quite controversial in the media.2
Two comprehensive studies have been conducted on this issue: Pak (2004) investigated the height of North Korean refugees in South Korea, and found that young South Korean adults were about 6–7 cm (2–3 in.) taller than their Northern counterparts. In a similar vein, Schwekendiek (2009) recently investigated the height and weight differences of preschool children and the weight of women. The data for this study was based on a nutritional survey carried out by the United Nations in collaboration with North Korean authorities in 2002. He found that South Korean preschool children were on average about 7–8 cm (3 in.) taller, and 3–4 kg (7–9 pounds) heavier than their North Korean counterparts. South Korean women were also found to weigh on average about 6 kg (13 pounds) more than North Korean women. However, both of these studies had limitations. The refugee sample contained few preschool age children, whereas the UN survey did not assess the height of adults. The purpose of this article is to briefly report anthropometric gaps over the last decade between North and South Korean preschool children, drawing from newly available sources.
Section snippets
Data
The South Korean height and weight data are from the Korean Research Institute of Standards and Science (1997) and the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (2004).3 As for North Korea, height and weight of the children came from measurements that the United Nations gathered at North Korean nurseries and kindergartens in 1997. This data has been discussed previously in
Findings and conclusion
Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 4 compare the height and weight of South Koreans to those of North Koreans. Additionally, we compare differences in body mass index (BMI = weight in kg/height2 in m) between the two Koreas (Fig. 5, Fig. 6).5 The
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Korea Research Foundation. We thank the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards for letting us analyze South Korean anthropometric data at their institute.
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